


halcyon

by bobsuffers



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cute ladynoir, Festivals, Fluff, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 10:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20864633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobsuffers/pseuds/bobsuffers
Summary: ladybug brings our resident catboi chat to a festival to hv fun bc thats what good partners do n its cuTEThis is a piece for the Team Miraculous Zine!





	halcyon

**Author's Note:**

> i cant believe this is my first work in the fandom lol i loved writing these kids being cute n having fun honestly

“Good job, kitty.” Ladybug said, breathless as she bumped her fist against Chat’s. They watched as the akumatized victim was lead back home by their family, the reporters this time quicker to disperse than usual. From their perch on the rooftop, Ladybug could see the sun was glinting off the water as it set, tainting the Seine red and orange as if fire ran through it instead. The streets had begun to fill up with pedestrians after work, and none of them noticed the two superheroes above. 

Today’s job had been..surprisingly easy. It had even given her extra time left for the evening to go out with Alya—it  _ was  _ a Friday night, after all. (A small, niggling thought at the back of her head made her wonder what Adrien would be doing, too). She stretched, exhaled with a content sigh and plopped herself down on the edge of the rooftop, tugging Chat down with her. They still had a while before their miraculous’ wore off, and something in Ladybug kept her here instead of rushing off as per usual, wanted to preserve this small bubble of peace as long as she could. Chat’s presence was part of that peace, too.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, my lady?” Chat hummed, an idle question said as he laid along the edge of the rooftop, that feline grace preventing him from toppling off. “You look like you’re in a good mood.” 

She caught hold of his tail and tugged it in response, snorting as he halfheartedly batted her away.

“Mmm, nothing much right now. Today’s just been really good for me,” she grinned, . They’d been paired up for a long term science project, and Adrien had been paired up with Chloe—but she’d been absent, so Mme. Bustier had put her with Adrien instead. And she’d only stuttered  _ once _ in front of him! 

She fiddled with the leather-belt tail. “ _ Plus.  _ It’s a Friday and there’s  _ finally  _ no homework, so I can go out with my best friend to the cinema. They have a rerun of  _ Amelie  _ and I’ve been dying to watch it on the big screen.” 

Chat laughed as if her enthusiasm had leached into him too. “It’s nice to hear you enjoy yourself, Bugaboo. You sound so busy, most of the time.” He’d propped his head on a hand, and was watching her with those glinting green eyes behind his mask. Like this, with the wind from the Seine ruffling that down-soft hair, stretched across the rooftop all languid, lazy elegance and playful grins, Chat looked more supermodel than superhero. 

It felt familiar, somehow. 

Ladybug shook her head slightly, shrugging off the ridiculous thought. “Do you have any plans then,  _ Chaton _ ?”

The glint in his eyes died at that—though if Ladybug didn’t know Chat better than herself, she was sure she wouldn’t have noticed it. 

“Ah, not really, no. I like to keep my weekends...chill.” Chat shrugged. “Plus, I’m not really allowed out at all.” He spoke as if it were used to it.   
  


_ What kind of teenage boy wasn’t allowed to have fun? _

Ladybug blinked at Chat. She’d discovered, along the years they’d worked together, that Chat was too good at hiding things he wanted to keep hidden. She’d never tried to make him talk if he didn’t, didn’t discourage it either, even if they had a strict no-real-life-talk policy. But she’d pieced it together from snippets of conversation caught in between patrols and battles. 

She blew out a breath and looked at the enigma of a boy on the roof. He flashed her a lazy smile at the glance. It tugged at her heart, somehow—not romantically, but because under all that swagger and humour was a lonely boy that had too little warmth in his life. It reminded Ladybug of Adrien, somehow—he’d been the same. At least, that was what she felt when she’d stepped into Gabriel Agreste’s echoing mansion that was too large and empty for an absent father and his son.

She heard her miraculous’ telltale beep, and the shift beside her of Chat unfurling from his position on the roof. 

“Time to get going, Bugaboo.” He extended his hand towards Ladybug to help pull her up.

She looked at the proffered hand, and smiled at him.

“Tell you what,  _ Chaton, _ ” she said as she accepted the hand, “Are you free on Saturday?”

Chat raised an eyebrow behind the mask. “Yes. Why?”

“The fair is coming tomorrow, and I thought we could go.” Ladybug suddenly felt ridiculous—what if Chat didn’t like fairs? Or— 

He still hadn’t replied. Ladybug hesitated, “That is, if you want. Or we could do something else—”

Chat shook his head, and Ladybug could  _ feel  _ his cat ears perk up. “Wait, really? In—in our miraculouses?” His eyes glittered like emeralds when she affirmed with an enthusiastic  _ yeah!  _

“Ladybug, you don’t have to, you know, if you have other friends you were going to bring, or if you had other plans...” 

One moment Chat made her want to hug him and in another he made her want to kick him off the roof. 

“You stupid cat.  _ You’re  _ the friend that I want to bring. So, are you going or not?” 

That uncertain smile grew into grew into a blinding grin. He pretended to consider, even as his own miraculous gave its second warning beep. “Hmm, I don’t know. Didn’t a certain ladybug say no using our miraculouses for purposes outside of work?”

Ladybug merely groaned and tossed a well intentioned punch at his shoulder.

“Owww, my Lady has no manners at all—”

_ “See you back here tomorrow at seven!”  _ Ladybug hollered back as she threw her yo-yo to a chimney homeward and swung into the air.

————————————————————————————————————————————

Exhilaration ran through Chat’s veins like electricity—bright and alive, the laugh dissolving from his lips into the air rushing past him as he vaulted across Paris’ rooftops.

_ “Last one to get there pays for the first ride!”  _ Ladybug had challenged when they’d convened at the rooftop again, vanishing in a blur seconds later. But Chat could keep up just fine—and so the game turned into a rhythm of push and pull; either one of them would be in the lead before the other took over immediately. They did this, sometimes, when patrol became too boring, and it was always unclear who’d actually  _ won,  _ but they couldn’t find it in themselves to care whenever they landed together in a giggling, exhausted heap. 

Chat was _sixty percent _sure though, that he’d won when his feet touched the roof of a brick warehouse near _Fête des Tuileries, _already alive with noise and carnival lights. He said so, to which Ladybug pretended to sniff and turn her nose up at him—it reminded him so much of Chloe Chat couldn’t help but snicker.

“And what are  _ you  _ laughing at,  _ Chaton?”  _ grinned Ladybug as she took out money from god-knew-where and handed it to the ticket vendor. The civilians had grown much more used to their presence in Paris after a year or so into the job, but Chat Noir and Ladybug, protectors of Paris, would always draw awed stares wherever they went. (The vendor had insisted the tickets were free, but they’d firmly pushed the money back, and one look from Ladybug quelled any protests). 

They stood in front of the tin can alley at an impossible angle—impossible for someone who wasn’t Paris’ best superheroes. A small crowd of children had formed behind them in anticipation, and Chat felt the weight of the ball in his hand before taking aim. The small structure of cans collapsed upon impact, and the vendor handed him a stuffed bear Chat presented to Ladybug with a flourish. 

Ladybug accepted to gift with the hand that wasn’t taking aim. The tip of her lips quirked up.“Hmm. Is that all you’ve got, Chat?” The next tower of cans collapsed as neatly as Chat’s, and Chat took  _ his  _ stuffed animal with a laugh. 

They left the vendor laden with stuffed animals impossible to lug around, so the children had gotten the toys instead most of them running off to tell their parents and friends how  _ they’d gotten a present from Ladybug and Chat Noir!  _

“I dare you to not scream at all at the ghost ride,” giggled Ladybug when they stood in front of the ride’s entrance, fully decked out in grey, ragged cloth presumably for that “haunted house” effect flapping menacingly in the summer breeze.

“We’ll see about  _ that,”  _ Chat purred as the vendor accepted their tickets and they stepped into the dimness. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be the creepy black cat, remember?”

Ladybug retorted with a grin when they strapped into the ride. “You mean scaredy cat—Wait,  _ oh my god,  _ what the hell is  _ that, Chat—” _

Those blue eyes widened in horror behind her mask as she gazed at something behind him—Chat’s heart gave a traitorous jolt—and Ladybug burst into laughter as his head almost turned to follow her eyes. 

“Oh very funny, My Lady.” Chat rolled his eyes and flicked her nose with a fingertip, and it scrunched up in more laughter. 

“You should’ve seen your face, Chat, you were sooooooooo scared.”

“I was not!”

“Was too!”

“Was  _ not.” _

“Ooh, whatever the scaredy cat says, then.”

—

Both of them got off the ride doubling over with laughter—the ride had added akumatized villains along the way, and it was more hilarious than it was scary than seeing the crude versions of villains they’d fought in real life. Ladybug was still adjusting pigtails, dishevelled from the ride, when the scent of fries caught his nose. 

“Ooh Chat, have you tried dipping the toffee apple in the fries’ cheese dip?” Ladybug mused as she stole more of Chat’s dip, even though she’d abstained from buying her own portion of fries. Chat maneuvered his dip away from Ladybug with ease, giving her a mildly terrified look. “Bugaboo,  _ no.” _

“Ah, Chaton, you have so little faith in me.” Ladybug huffed in between her last bites of crackly, hardened caramel. “Wait, hold up—”

She went spun around in search for a place to dispose of the toffee apple’s wooden stick, but Chat was already drawn towards the smell of cooking batter and glazed fruit. He cocked his head to the side. 

_ Maman’s hand is warm and calloused in his as she leads him through the crowd. He grips a sandwich, and Maman has a crepe in her free hand. He knows Maman likes sweet stuff like him too. “Maman? Can I have a bite too? Ooh, you like strawberries too, Maman?” _

“Hey, Chat?” Ladybug’s voice made Chat startle from his reverie.fr. Chat bumped his shoulder against hers and pointed at the crepe stall, it’s glow warm against the dimness at the edge of the  _ Fête.  _ “Want a crepe?”

— 

They ended up on the rooftop of some closed stall near the crepe vendor, almost burning their fingers on it despite the paper wrapping. Ladybug was licking the frosting off her fingers when Chat spoke—he’d been silent their entire way here. 

“ _ Maman  _ liked—likes crepes.” Chat said with a small smile as he tore off a bit of the wrapping. She’d never seen this sort of smile on him, it almost didn’t fit his features—it was almost  _ sad _ . He seemed so, so far away.

Ladybug remained quiet, waited for him to continue. Chat was rarely  _ thoughtful.  _ And neither of them spoke about their lives beyond the miraculouses. It was a glimpse of that other Chat behind the mask, and even though Ladybug should’ve stopped him, should’ve changed the subject, some part of her wanted to listen.

_ And besides,  _ she reasoned,  _ they were talking about Chat’s mother. Not Chat himself.  _

“She used to take me here a lot. I think we passed by that exact place, too.” 

Ladybug reached over for a bite. “What flavour does she usually get, then?” She said in between strawberry-cream-crepe.

“Strawberry. Sometimes dad came with us too—he’d go even if he had work to do, he’d put it down to go with us. Anything for his family—until mom le—” Chat broke off with a shake of his head and turned to her with an apologetic smile. 

“Sorry, bugaboo. You came here for fun, not to listen to me talk about some sob story.” He offered her the last bite of the crepe, but she pushed it back to him. She knew he liked that part of the crepe the best.

That alone spoke volumes about what Chat was—what he had, in his civilian life; a boy too accustomed to being alone, to having no one to talk to about, well,  _ everything.  _

“Don’t you dare apologize, Chat. If there’s anything that you want to talk about—that’s say, not directly about you, but the people around you—you come to me if you have no one, alright?” She poked at his chest with indignance.

Chat pouted in fake hurt and rolled his eyes, but she could see the gratitude in them, behind the mask. “Alright, alright. Whatever my lady says.” 

They sat in comfortable silence after that, watching as the festival goers slowly trickled out of the  _ Fete,  _ until Chat unfurled from his perch and held out his hand. A mirror image of the day Ladybug had invited him to the  _ Fete.  _

He smiled as he pulled her up, and his voice was small and soft as he said, “Thank you. For today. It really was fun, I’ve never, you know—” He gestured at the empty carnival in front of them, dim without the lights— ”So I’m sorry if—” 

Ladybug didn’t wait for him to finish before squeezing him into a hug—the rib crushing hugs she normally gave to her best friend, because she had a feeling Chat rarely had those. She felt him tense in surprise before relaxing into her hold. 

“I said  _ no apologising,  _ Chat! But thank  _ you,”  _ she pulled away and tilted her face up to meet his gaze. “And if you ever want to hang out again, just tell me, ‘kay?”

“I—yeah, it’d be fun to go again next year.” He still had a faintly surprised smile on his face when he pulled out his staff, but it melted into a crooked, mischievous one that she was much more familiar with.

“Race you back, bugaboo!”

Ladybug groaned at his retreating figure before flinging out her yo-yo.  _ Dammit.  _ “ _ Not fair,  _ Chat!”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! pls r&r, i appreciate every kudos and comment so thank u so much if u hv given one <3
> 
> the summer carnival they went to is actually a real thing they have in paris called the Fête des Tuileries ! (may not hv accented the 'e' in the fic woops)
> 
> u can also find me on twatter: thirsty4titties


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